New Google Wallet merchants added - Tap to pay and save money

Google has been going strong with Google Wallet as of late in an effort to make NFC more widely used. Their latest announcement is a testament to their commitment of working with merchants in an effort to make things easy, drive sales and save consumers money. They've added more supported merchants to the list, as noted on the Google Mobile Blog:

Today, our partners American Eagle Outfitters, The Container Store, Foot Locker, Guess, Jamba Juice, Macy’s, OfficeMax and Toys“R”Us are rolling out an even better Google Wallet experience. For the first time ever in the U.S., at these select stores, you can not only pay but also redeem coupons and/or earn rewards points—all with a single tap of your phone. This is what we call the Google Wallet SingleTap experience.

So not only will you be able to use Google Wallet at those places, you'll also be able to save some money while doing so. The "Featured Offers" tab within Google Wallet has offers that are exclusive and won't be found elsewhere. Some new ones added today include, 15% off at American Eagle Outfitters, 10% off at The Container Store, 15% off at Macy’s and an all-fruit smoothie for $2 at Jamba Juice and Google is actively working with retailers to have customer rewards / loyalty cards integrated with their services as well.

While Google admits that Google Wallet is still new and they are actively exploring new uses for it, the adoption rate has thus far been great with even more retailers such as Chevron, D’Agostino, Faber News Now, Gristedes Supermarkets and Pinkberry working with Google to accept Google Wallet.

BlackBerry DevCon begins tomorrow, calls Android developers to have their apps ported for the BlackBerry PlayBook

Tomorrow marks -- among other things -- the start of BlackBerry DevCon, the BlackBerry Developers Convention of the year, and this year they will be doing something a bit different. We all know that the BlackBerry PlayBook will have an Android player, and while we are unsure of when it will release to the public, we are seeing that RIM wants to be prepared with plenty of ported applications. So, if you are an Android developer and happen to be in the San Fransisco area this week, be sure to check out the link below to see what you need to do to have your application ported for PlayBook compatability.

Droid RAZR teaser site not that much of a tease

Yep, there it is. The Motorola Droid RAZR. Cause when you tease something, chances are it's not lurking too far behind. And such was the case with that Droid RAZR teaser site, as many an Android snooper is now discovering. Thin. Presumably light. With that carbon-fiber/Kevlar-esque back. We'll get a better look at Tuesday's event.

Worldwide Samsung Galaxy S sales hit 30 million

Samsung has announced that it's sold 30 million Galaxy S phones worldwide since the series launched last April. At least a third of that number consists of sales of Samsung's latest and greatest dual-core smartphone, the Galaxy S II. As we reported last month, sales of that device now top 10 million worldwide.

With the Galaxy S II now available on three of the four major US carriers, that number's only going to increase in the months ahead. Samsung notes that the current figures show one Galaxy S II being sold every second since the device's international launch this Spring, which is pretty crazy.

More big numbers and superlatives can be found in today's full press release, after the jump.

T-Mobile adds a handful of new no-contract 4G plans

T-Mobile has announced a few new additions to its pay-as-you-go 4G plans, available beginning today. For $60/month customers will receive unlimited talk, text and web with up to 2 GB data at 4G speeds. If you prefer to take things one day at a time, you'll now have three options: for $3/day, you'll have unlimited talk, text, and web with 200 MB of 4G data, while $2/day will get you unlimited everything, though you'll be stuck at 2G speeds. And for a buck a day, you'll have unlimited text and 10 cents per minute for talk, with no data. Oh, one more thing: available exclusively through Walmart, for $30/month, you'll get unlimited texting and web, with up to 5 GB of data at 4G speeds, and 100 minutes. Commitment-phobes, rejoice!

Google IO 2012 announced for April 24-25 in San Francisco

Finally, Google's given us a date for the 2012 edition of its Google IO developer's conference. April 24-25 is the result, with Moscone West once again the venue.

Google IO, of course, is the conference for all things Google, not just Android. But it's also where we've gotten previews of things to come, panels with the movers and shakers in the Android world, and some great meetings with developers.

Motorola launches teaser site for tomorrow's big announcement

Chomping at the bit for Motorola and Verizon'sbig reveal tomorrow afternoon? You're not the only one. Until we finally get to see what all the fuss is about, you can check out Motorola's teaser site at the source link below, which features a countdown to the big news, a nice little mural dedicated to "Faster, Thinner, Stronger, and Smarter", and an all-too-brief promo video. If you're the type to look too deep into things, you'll notice a razor, a bulletproof vest, and the number 42 flash on the screen: RAZR, Kevlar coating, and 4G LTE, perhaps? Or maybe not. We'll all find out together tomorrow at noon, where we'll be reporting live from New York City.

Kyocera Milano review

Entry-level, a hard keyboard, and an interesting form factor

I've got to hand it to any carrier (and manufacturer) for continuing to make and sell entry-level Android phones. Without them, a whole swath of people would miss out on the coolest mobile OS around and might not get the green fever everyone around here seems to have.

What we have in the Kyocera Milano is a tasty cookie just that: a pretty decent, entry-level Android for the (probably) first-time smartphone owner. If you're a power user and rooter extraordinaire, keep walking. If, however, you're looking to get your first shiny, new smartphone (or know someone who is), dive on deeper with me and we'll sort this whole thing out.

It's small, brisk for it's size, and has a hard keyboard (great for messaging). It's also about as stock as you can get without going Nexus.

The small screen isn't as sharp as it should be and it's thicker than most über-phones out on the market today.

Sprint and Kyocera have definitely developed a phone for a particular audience, and for that audience, it definitely fits. For everyone else, keep moving right along.

10 Honeycomb UI features we hope to see in Ice Cream Sandwich for phones

In short order, Googlers will be on stage announcing Ice Cream Sandwich. The next version of Android, it's been touted as "the one" that will merge the tablet operating system (Honeycomb) with the phone operating system (Gingerbread), as well as bring "incredible" things according to Larry Page. We figure a lot of these incredible things will be under the hood, and they should be -- Android still needs some work in key areas, but as users, we're excited about one thing -- the new user interface.

Honeycomb does a lot of things right, and we would love to see some of those things kept and ported over to phones. Everyone has their own list, but we're going to share ours. Read on past the break!

BIG Launcher receives a huge update, now 100% accessible

A few weeks back we took a look at BIG Launcher, an Android replacement launcher geared toward those who have some trouble seeing smaller icons, and they are pleased to announce a huge update. With this update the launcher is now 100% accessible, meaning it is now compatible with screen reader applications, such as Talkback, it is now fully controllable by physical buttons only if preffered, and they offer a dark skin as well so it is a bit easier on the eyes. If you have already purchased BIG Launcher be sure to grab the latest update, and if you haven't or know someone who could benefit from it be sure to hit the break for download links.

Photon 4G update not going smoothly for all

It's a story we're hearing all too often these days. An update comes down for a phone, and the phone starts acting up. Such is the case, apparently, for a number of Sprint Motorola Photon 4G users, who are reporting such problems as overheating to failed updates. It's not everybody, of course, but it's enough to raise eyebrows.

Android Theme Review: Lucid

If you're looking for the antithesis of Frost, you'll find it in Lucid. Dark, dramatic, and definitely easy on the battery, Lucid has won me over in the dark themes category and Sonny Sekhon has definitely shown off that he's no slouch at making CM7 themes.

Take everything I've said about Frost and Tangerine, and just make it black. The notification pulldown bar is back to being black. The transparency is there and the bottom of the pulldown is black with a little white arrow. The widget icons are white (naturally, so you can see them), and the battery percent is still inside the battery.

The dialer is transparent black, just like the other themes made by this developer. The accent colors for the frames is actually the same silver as Frost. The only difference here is that Lucid opts for black instead of silver.

Icons and widgets are the same greyish silver from Frost, too. Give your app drawer a look, there's plenty to see. It matches the theme really well, and while it may initially seem like a bummer that the icons are the same as Frost, monochrome looks so good with black you won't even mind the next time you look.

The toast notifications, buttons, highlight color, and checks are also the same dark grey/silver color, but it looks awesome. I guess that means we could argue Lucid is just Frost with a black bar, but don't. The theme looks good and it's functional, so let it be.

If you're looking for a theme with a bit darker vibe, Lucid is it. It's clean, look great, and shouldn't be too hard on the battery. Like it's other friends from the same dev, it's all yours for only $1.

T-Mobile gets the text-friendly, dual-screened LG DoublePlay

And in this corner of the LG U.S. National Texting Championship we have the brand-new LG DoublePlay on T-Mobile. Just announced, the Android 2.3 device features a 3.5-inch main display and 2-inch sub-display that splits the four-row QWERTY keyboard. While secondary screens have yet to really take off (hi, Kyrocera Echo and Samsung Continuum), this one's different as it's got a layer of functionality the others lacked with the keyboard.

The DoublePlay, which is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, also has a 5MP camera and is the phone contestants will use at the National Texting Championship on Oct. 26 in New York. No word yet on when us mere mortals can pick one up.